Keran's MUX/MUSH Weather and Time Code Package
Frequently Asked Questions

Current Version: 3.0


1. What servers does the weather and time code run on?

TinyMUX 1.4 or 1.5; it probably runs on earlier MUX versions, but
the current release hasn't been tested on them. There are ports
to TinyMUSH 2.2.2 and PennMUSH 1.6.10.

The code will execute on TinyMUX 1.5. However, it is not
recommended that you run it on patch level 3 (the current patch
level) or lower, because there seem to be severe memory leaks
in 1.5 and this code apparently invokes them repeatedly. Keep a
close eye on your process size if you run this code on 1.5; your
process size can grow without bound and crash your server, a
very nasty thing to do.

There is no known problem running this code in 1.4; the process
size is expected to remain stable indefinitely with it running if
there is no other load on the MUX.

In order for this code to work correctly on the Windows port
of PennMUSH, one must set 'prevent objects from
evaluating ufuns on more privileged objects' to 'no' in the
mush.cnf file.

2. Will you port it to ...?

I'm not going to port it to any non-MUSH-family servers, but you
can if you like. I expect to port to TinyMUSH 3.0 when it's
released.


3. What are the features of the weather and time code?

Time functions for determining the year, month, season, time of day,
  tide, and moon phase; 
A weathermaker that determines a different weather type every day; 
Day and night length that vary by season and can be adjusted for
  approximate latitude;
A weather description bank with descriptions that vary by time of day
  and season; 
An outdoor parent room that makes it easy to write descriptions that
  vary by time of day, season, weather, and the visibility of the
  moon;
Configurable time compression ratios, in two different modes. You can
  accelerate all time with clock compression, or skip days with
  calendar compression. You can run at 4:1, 3:1, 2:1, 3:2, or 1:1 by
  changing a few settings; 
Simple adjustable weather modelling; 
An optional quasi-Gregorian calendar in addition to the native
  calendar; 
Clock code that can send out messages to specified receivers at given
  times, such as sunrise, moonset, other time of day transitions, or
  at specific hours.
An auxiliary bank of descriptions varying by season, time of day, and
  weather, geared to surroundings with a lot of leafy trees, to
  illustrate how to make auxiliary desc banks for different
  environments; 
Regional weather, and a sample slave weather station.


4. What's planned for the next version?

The following are definite:
The moon is going to get fixed so that its rise and set times are
   appropriate to its phase.
The tides will be synchronized with the moon.

I'm also thinking of adding the ability to trigger storms and other
transient local events.


5. What environments can it model?

Almost any environment with earthlike weather you feel like writing
description banks for. The supplied description banks are for a moist
northern hemisphere mid-latitude temperate climate; the short
descriptions on the Weathermaker, and the general weather descriptions
on the Weather Long Description bank, describe atmospheric conditions
in such an environment. You can rewrite them so they suit warmer or
colder climates. There is also one auxiliary description bank
supplied, the Tree Weather Description Bank, which gives descriptions
of a temperate environment with a lot of deciduous trees; the
descriptions vary by day, night, season, and weathertype. It is
simple, although laborious, to write description banks for cities,
deserts, grassland, seacoasts, etc.

You can also change the frequency with which different weathertypes
are selected by the Weathermaker at various seasons. For example, the
default setting produces a lot of fog in summer because it's for an
island. It would be comparatively simple to reduce the amount of
summer fog but increase the frequency of snow in winter for an upland
setting; this is just a question of varying the number of times a
given weathertype appears in the selection lists on the Weathermaker.

You will have to change the order of the Gregorian months on the Time
Functions object if you're using the quasi-Gregorian calendar for a
setting in the southern hemisphere.


6. Can I use the weather code without the timing code?

Yes, if you supply other timing code; it is not recommended that you
attempt this unless you're a competent coder. In order to use
foreign timing code and preserve most of the functionality of this
weather system, the timing code must capable of the following:

It must, at the very least, distinguish between day and night;
   preferably, it distinguishes between day, night, dawn, and dusk.
It must distinguish the seasons spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
In order for the Outdoor Parent Room to work as it does in this
   system, there must be a function that tells whether the moon is up
   or not.
There must be a clock capable of triggering the Weathermaker at dawn.


7. Shouldn't the moon be on a 28-day cycle, not a 30-day cycle?

No. It's the sidereal month, the motion of the moon against the stars,
that's 27.32 days; the synodic month, the time between like
conjunctions, which determines the phase of the moon, is 29.53 days,
rounded to 30.


8. Can I add moons?

Very likely, although there is no utility intended to do this and it
hasn't been tested. It is not recommended that a non-coder attempt
this. It seems that it ought to be possible to duplicate and rename
the moon functions for other moons, changing the length of the moon
cycle for extra moons.


9. Can I make the tides diurnal?

It hasn't been tested, and it is not recommended that a non-coder
attempt this, but you should be able to do this by revising the code
on the time functions object that sets the length of the tide cycle.
It divides the length of the moon cycle by 2 to set the length of the
tide cycle; make it identical instead.


10. Can I set up weather that varies from region to region?

Yes. You can even track the probable course of storms from region to
region. A sample slave weather station is provided, along with
documentation for how to set up different weather regions. It isn't
recommended that you attempt this unless you are reasonably competent
with code; being able to read and understand some of the code is a
necessity for the setup.


11. Can I set up different time zones?

Probably, although it would take separate copies of the code suite
for each time zone, with a different value for time-begins set on
each copy of the Time Functions object. It hasn't been tested.


12. Can I leave any of these 14 large objects out?

Yes. If you don't want regional weather, you don't need the Slave
Weather Station. If you don't have any use for descriptions of an
environment with a lot of broadleafed trees, leave out the Tree
Weather Descriptions Bank. If you don't want to use the global time
of day emits, you can omit the Emits bank, and if you don't want to
use the outdoor parent room, you can leave that out. If neither you
nor your players are going to do any serious tinkering with time
code, you might leave out the Uncommon function help, although this
is not recommended.


13. What time compression ratios can I use it at?

In calendar compression mode, 4:1, 3:1, 2:1, and 1:1. In clock
compression mode, it's been tested at 4:1, 3:1, 2:1, 1:1, and 3:2. It
is expected to run at any clock compression ratio involving small
whole numbers by which 3600 can be evenly divided, e.g, it should run
at 5:2 and 1:2, but it has not been tested at all such ratios.


14. I found a bug, typo, etc. What do I do about it?

Email me at keranset@mail1.nai.net and tell me what happened, what
ratio you were running at, and what modifications you've made. I
usually fix errors I can reproduce. I recommend that if you install
this code, you send me your email address so I can put you on the
list of people I automatically send bug fixes to.


15. Where do I get the code?

ftp://keranset.telmaron.com/keranset/.


Keran